The NIFAM Team contributed to the Tropentag 2024 "Explore opportunities... for managing natural resources and a better life for all" with an oral presentation by Dinh Thi Kim Anh and poster presentations by Nguyen Thi Sau, Bui Thi Khanh Hoa, Dr. Luu Thi Thu Giang and Kristen Bryk supported by NIFAM project leader Dr. Cory Whitney and Dr. Simone Kathrin Kriesemer.

The Tropentag conferences are always an excellent opportunity for our NIFAM team to network, learn, discuss, and get inspired by the interesting work of fellow researchers and organizations and this year we are very proud and happy that results from our project were chosen to be presented. 

In the following, we would like to introduce you to the exciting work from our team members at this years Tropentag conference.

Improving children’s nutrition: Evidence-based policy recommendations for school meal programmes in urban Vietnam

As school meals are an essential part of children's nutrition, official policies focus on improving the nutritional value of these meals to prevent diet-related disorders in children through resolutions, projects, national strategies, guidelines, circulars, and documents. This work aims to detect challenges that hinder the implementation of these policies using decision analysis (DA) by identifying the effectiveness of these policies and the risks and benefits of their implementation. The graphical impact pathway (see below) indicates all these factors and is used as a basis to forecast nutrition outcomes and possible cost reductions for healthcare. A preliminary model showcases how internal and external factors inhibit these policies' success and thus hinder child nutrition improvement.  With expert consultation and calibration, a final mathematical model will be created to identify the most important variables that influence the success of the policies and provide valuable insights and recommendations for policymakers to update the current strategies.

“Dinh et al. - 2024 - Improving Children’s Nutrition Evidence-Based Pol.Pdf,” n.d.
Dinh, Thi Kim Anh, Quoc Toan Luu, Simone Kathrin Kriesemer, Cory Whitney, and Thi Thu Giang Luu. “Improving Children’s Nutrition: Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations for School Meal Programmes in Urban Vietnam.” In Tropentag 2024. Vienna, Austria, 2024.

Luu Thi Thu Giang  from the University of Bonn presented her work on stakeholder engagement during the thematic session "Climate smart agriculture adoption and climate change adaptation strategies II"

Stakeholder engagement in agro-climatic service planning

Climate change and variability pose difficulties for small-holder farmers to react accordingly as actionable agro-climatic services (ACS) are not necessarily focusing on the needs and demands of small-holder farmers. Thus, a transition from supply-driven to demand-driven provision of infromation is needed and the engagement of stakeholders in all of the necessary phases is essential. This study developed an approach to adress the critical stages of ACS development to facilitate and guide the collabroation of stakeholders and their important inputs. It shows that stakeholder attributes like availability, experience, gender, cost and benefit profile, or influence need to be considered in the decision-making process and when, where, and how. For instance, stakeholders with extensive experience and expertise could identify the needs and impacts of ACS wheres stakeholders with interest and relevance to ACS focus on the key decision moments in the policy cycle. A coordination body is recommended to mitigate stakeholder engagement without or with minimal conflicts of interest but relevance to the decision-making. The proposed engagement approach deriving from this study shows the development of ACS with regard to local needs for climate change responses and can be adapted to other complex decision-making processes as well. 

Improving urban consumers’ access to safe vegetables: case for factories and workers in Hanoi, Vietnam

Safe vegetables from supermarkets or farms with reliable safety standards are usually financially inaccessible for low- and mid-income workers in Hanoi as supermarkets typically do not engage in worker-friendly segments and most reliable farms do not have connections to companies. These companies showed interest in supporting the access of safe vegetables for their workers as it could increase their health, work ethic and loyalty towards the company. Within the NIFAM project, this study developed a model for three scenarios after consulting with stakeholders and experts to improve decision-making. The scenarios include companies investing in a selling point of safe vegetables on the company grounds (FarmStand), companies promoting the connection between farmers and workers (FarmConnect), or companies are not engaging at all (DoNothing). A graphical impact pathway shows all possible risks and benefits for the scenarios. The model was translated into R and Monte Carlo simulations were used to forecast the effects of all three scenarios focusing on Net Present Values (NPV) and Value of Information (VoI). The results indicate that scenario FarmStand greatly benefits the company's NPV and workers’ health, more than three times more than FarmConnect. A knowledge gap concerning the high VoIs needs to be addressed further and with monitoring the implementation pilots, uncertainties could be reduced to make the model more robust.

Modelling the impact of land use choices on livelihoods and food environments in peri-urban Hanoi

Farmers, who currently own and cultivate agricultural land in peri-urban Hanoi face severe changes as urbanization and industrialization led to the abandonment of agricultural lands. With this, the food environment in peri-urban and urban areas is affected and farmers need to decide whether to continue cultivating their land or search for alternative income possibilities. This study developed a decision-making framework and an impact pathway diagram to create a mathematical model to simulate three different scenarios the farmers may choose and to offer valuable insights into the risks and benefits of their options. The scenarios are maintaining the agricultural production (MAINTAIN), renting their land to other farmers (RENT), or abandoning the land and search for alternative income possibilities (FALLOW). The results of the Monte-Carlo simulation showed that MAINTAIN provides many benefits like income from agriculture, improved health, or the preservation of traditional values whereas RENT accounts for an alternative income stream but high insecurities as fluctuating prices. FALLOW offers a high level in non-farm income but could lead to administrative problems concerning the abandonment of land. The results of the model simulation provide valuable insights for stakeholders and policy-makers regarding supply chains, rental systems, or the economic efficiency of agricultural production.

“Khanh et al. - 2024 - Modelling the Impact of Land Use Choices on Liveli.Pdf,” n.d.
Hoa, Bui Thi Khanh, Pham-Van Hung, Simone Kathrin Kriesemer, Thi Giang Luu, and Cory Whitney. “Modelling the Impact of Land Use Choices on Livelihoods and Food Environments in Peri-Urban Hanoi.” In Tropentag 2024. Vienna, Austria, 2024.

Navigating complexity: A framework for updating and monitoring forecasts of nutrition interventions in evolving food environments

With a changing food environment and economic situation, malnutrition is changing in Hanoi, Vietnam and all three types of malnutrition are faced (undernutrition, deficiencies, or overnutrition). Thus, models that evaluate nutrition interventions are an important tool to counteract the growing problem of malnutrition. Apart from creating a model, monitoring the effect of suggested nutrition interventions is essential for successful improvements. This work focuses on the development of a monitoring framework protocol to evaluate and improve the implementation of nutrition interventions, here the creation of a school garden in Hanoi. Targeted literature review and group discussions are the basis for the monitoring protocol outline and further data collection after implementation of the intervention leads to a refined and updated monitoring framework outlining new risks, benefits, and causal links. For instance, bureaucratic barriers were identified as crucial risk, a changed attitude towards the environment a benefit, and the teachers’ skills are directly linked to the teacher training and thus training effectiveness. With this, a 9-step monitoring protocol was created that guides a systematic evaluation of intervention implementations and supports the development of adaptable models. It can be broadly applied for adaptive management and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in food environment-related projects.

Despite the rainy and cold weather in Vienna, our NIFAM team enjoyed the Tropentag conference and we are proud of our members for their successful presentations. 

We are already excited about the Tropentag Conference 2025 which will take place in Bonn.